PREFACE: Any violation of the rules in the "Critical Rules" section should be penalized by the voters who are allowed to penalize the debater with a range of penalties ranging from the loss of the conduct point to a seven point loss in the standard 7 point voting, to a complete loss in the "Choose the winner" voting option. This penalty, however, should be ignored if one or more violations were committed by both participants(Pro and Con).

Non-technical summary

A.1.1- No Plagiarism.

A.1.2- Text within images is to be subtracted from character space in case of large paragraphs within images.

A.1.3- No more than five images per round.

A.1.4- No more than three videos per round. Total amount of time in videos per round must be less than 30 minutes.

A.1.5- Citations must be provided in text itself.

A.1.6- If the initiator of the debate doesn't use his first round to argue and allows the opponent to start without an acceptance round, the opponent must only say "As agreed" in his final round.

A.1.7- No Forfeits

A-1.8- All conditions should be defined in the opening statement of the debate, unless the initiator of the debate decides to accept a condition the opponent suggests later on.

A-1.9- Additional rules and conditions can be added while using the NDRE, but they should be added in the opening statement. Moreover, some standard rules and conditions of the NDRE can be said to be disregarded for the debate, but that must be done in the opening statement.

Technical Details

A.1.1 Plagiarism is not allowed. Plagiarism is not only copying/pasting exact passages but it also could involve copying/pasting material with a few changes while using the same methods of presentation of the original author such as linguistic style, similar diagrams, same sources, etc.

A.1.2 Images which are screenshots of passages of text are not allowed, unless the text within the images/screenshots, after being added to the text, does not exceed the character limit allowed to the debater by more than 400 characters.

A.1.3 Providing more than five images per round is not allowed as pictures can themselves be considered further arguments and evidence, even if they didn't contain any text.

A.1.4 Providing more than three videos per round is not allowed as videos can themselves be considered further arguments and evidence. However, the total amount of minutes in all the video(s) should be less than 30 minutes as a total to be accepted.

A.1.5 Using URL-shortners or any form of URL hiding is not allowed. Citations should be present in the text itself and not in the comments, as some readers will be discouraged to find those citations in the comments section, especially in debates that have many comments.

A.1.6 If the initiator of the debate didn't use his/her first round to argue and allowed the opponent to argue in the first round, then the opponent cannot argue in the final round but he/she must say something that follows the lines of "As agreed." "As agreed" doesn't have to be said literally, but the opponent cannot provide arguments and summaries, he needs to say as agreed, and at most, thank the other debater and the readers, if he/she wants.

A.1.7 Forfeits are not allowed. Forfeits do not have to be one of the participants technically forfeiting the round, but could involve that participant explaining that he cannot make an argument on time or refusing to give an argument.

A.1.8 The instigator of the debate is not allowed to introduce any new conditions on the format of the debate(Burden of proof, acceptance round, etc) in rounds other than the first round. The contender is prohibited from introducing any conditions on the format of the debate which contradict the ones already present in the opening statement of the instigator. However, new additions by the contender are not prohibited but they are not obligatory to his opponent as he did not initiate the debate.

A.1.9 Any additional conditions, rules or definitions in the opening statement of the debate must be treated as critical rules that must be followed. Moreover, the instigator is allowed to remove certain critical rules in this document by clearly saying in the opening statement that he is following the NDRE without this and that rule.

ETIQUETTE STANDARDS:

PREFACE: Any violation of the standards in this section results only in the loss of the conduct point in 7 point voting, and should be evaluated when deciding the winner in "choose the winner" voting option.

Non-technical summary

A.2.1- No false accusations on citations.

A.2.2- Personal insults not allowed without justification.

Technical details

A.2.1 Each participant should thoroughly read the citations of her/his opponent before jumping into wrong conclusions and accusations. Any false accusation about any sources that is proven to be false is considered a violation of the etiquette standards.

A.2.2 Personal insults are not allowed if there is no justification that would suffice such personal attacks. This, however, doesn't apply on debates where the competitors are meant to insult each other, or the debate itself is about someone to begin with.